NEW YORK CITY — Members of disgraced CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus's inner circle told the FBI their boss was having an affair, DNAinfo.com New York has learned.
Petraeus, the decorated general, once asked the U.S. Army to set him up in a Manhattan apartment and was a frequent guest at galas here. He resigned last week after the FBI discovered he was having an affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell. His subordinates went to the FBI because they believed the extra-marital affair made him vulnerable to blackmail by enemies of the state.
"They threw him under the bus," a law enforcement source said.
The investigation into Petreaus reportedly began when a woman who allegedly received harassing emails from Broadwell went to the FBI. In the course of investigating the emails, they stumbled upon evidence of the affair. Petraeus's team went to the FBI independent of the investigation.
Sources said the whistleblowers were motivated by three forces: love of the CIA, self preservation and disdain for Petreaus.
According to a source, CIA employees, agents and officials who have knowledge of impropriety that could compromise the agency are subject to punishment and dismissal themselves if they fail to report it. The whistleblowers knew the director's infidelity would eventually come out and they wanted to protect themselves.
"They did not want to be quizzed afterwards on whether they had any knowledge about it, because they would then have to admit that they did," the source explained.
In the course of the investigation, the bureau soon uncovered text messages and emails that pointed to the affair and, when finally confronted about it, Petraeus resigned.
The CIA agents also told the FBI Petraus was cozy with several other women, sources said.
Petraeus was also said to have taken numerous freebies to attend galas and other events, including numerous ones in New York City, which the FBI saw as another potential problem for him to avoid owing any favors to outsiders or agency contractors.
The request for a Big Apple crash pad was ultimately denied by the army because Petraeus could not convince the Pentagon that he needed to be in New York enough to warrant the expenditure.
The source said that Petraeus requested the Department of Defense underwrite the Manhattan apartment not long after his affair Broadwell started two years ago, and prior to Obama making him the CIA director 15 months ago.
Petraeus was widely applauded for his work in Iraq and later in Afghanistan where he was in charge of U.S operations. He became close to Broadwell, a West Point graduate and a writer, when he agreed to cooperate with her on her biography on him called "All In."
Sources said the morale in the CIA had plummeted during Petraeus' stint. He apparently was concerned primarily with high-intensity terrorism cases, but paid little attention to the nut-and-bolts spy work and spent too much time in the spotlight, which aggravated the agency's line officers.
They say Petraeus' personal exploits and hob-nobbing were facilitated by another CIA official who one source described as "his enabler," arranging speaking engagements, appearances at special events and socializing with powerbrokers.
